Four Practitioners in Qian'an City Detained throughout Multiple Court Hearings

2010-07-08

A hearing was held in Qian'an City Court for Falun Gong practitioners Li Yankui, Li Qingsong, Zhao Minghua, and Zhang Hewen on June 13th, 2010. This was their fourth hearing. Wang Ziliang, chief judge of the Second Criminal Court announced that, because practitioner Ms. Cui Qingru did not appear in court, these four practitioners would continue to be detained at Qian'an Detention Centre.

The four practitioners, together with Ms. Cui Qingru, were arrested in October 2007. After three hearings and detentions extended past their terms, the Qian'an Court announced the primary verdict two years later on September 22nd, 2009. Li Yankui was sentenced to four years, Li Qingsong to three years, Zhao Minghua to three years, Zhang Hewen to three years, and Cui Qingru to a term of one year and ten months.

Ms. Cui Qingru was arrested at her home on October 10th, 2007. More than twenty days later, police officer Pu Yonglai extorted 20,000 yuan1 from her brother and released her on bail. The police then deceived Ms. Cui into coming to the Qian'an City Police Department at 1:00 p.m. on December 22nd, and held her at the Qian'an Detention Centre. When the primary verdict was announced on September 22nd, Ms. Cui had been detained for one year and ten months. Since the detention term expired on that day, she was released then and there.

Li Yankui, Li Qingsong, Zhao Minghua, and Zhang Hewen did not accept the verdict, and appealed their cases to the Tangshan City Intermediate Court. The court rejected the appeal on December 15th, 2007, using the excuse of "insufficient evidence and unclear facts," and returned the case back to the Second Criminal Court in Qian'an City.

The fourth illegal hearing was held at 9:30 a.m. on June 13th, 2010. The practitioners were handcuffed and shackled in chains and transferred to the Qian'an Second Criminal Court. They had difficulty walking. Zhao Minghua said her limbs were swollen and were hard to move around. The practitioners said, "It seems the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is indeed afraid of Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners just want to be better people, but they are punished like this."

Police officer Zhang Xiudong and two other people went to the court very early that day. They stood on both sides of the courtroom entrance, with police batons in hand and an unknown detection instrument by their side. They were chatting and didn't allow people to enter. Only after the vehicle carrying the four practitioners came were the family members allowed to enter, after being searched one by one.

Wang Ziliang, the chief judge, appeared shortly after 9:00 a.m. He was not wearing his uniform. With tea in left hand and holding a cigarette he entered the room, smirking. Wang Ziliang sat in the middle with one judge on each side. The clerk also wasn't wearing a uniform. A thin, humpbacked person wearing glasses served as the prosecutor (his name is unknown, but he was said to be living in Unit One, Building 17, of the Anshun Community).

At this point in time Wang Ziliang said that Ms. Cui Qingru must be present in the court, or the hearing would not begin. At about 9:40 a.m., Wang announced a postponement of the hearing until 3:00 p.m., and sent the four practitioners back to the detention centre. In the afternoon, Ms. Cui Qingru still could not be found. Wang was furious, swearing at Ms. Cui's family members and threatening them, "If you can't find her [Ms. Cui]. You will lose your jobs and we will also arrest you. We have many ways to deal with you."

The practitioners are innocent and should have been released immediately after the hearing so that a wrongful case that has lasted nearly three years could be redressed. Since Ms. Cui had been released, why did the court still demand that she be present, with the judge swearing at her family members? Wasn't this stirring up conflicts between Ms. Cui's family and the families of other Falun Gong practitioners?

A member of one practitioner's family said, "Ms. Cui has nothing to do with other practitioners. We just want you to release the others since they are innocent. Also, since Ms. Cui was released, why demand that she return?" Wang Ziliang replied, "I don't care what happened in the past." The family member said, "What happened in the past is relevant to what is going on now. You are holding us responsible for it. The longer these innocent people are detained, the more wrongdoings you are committing."

From this incident, we can see that the CCP doesn't take the law seriously, but instead uses it as a tool to suppress people.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.